26/30 - "Australia Day" Thoughts !!!!

Australia Day thoughts !!!

January 26th: “Australia Day”

Is there ever a time in Australia where the whole “listen to someone with a different perspective to yours” applies more?

And the funny thing is…. You might think this principle applies to other people - who need to listen to you. And I am positive that it does! However, if it applies to “those people”, emotional maturity is realising that it applies to us all equally. I’m responsible for me, you’re responsible for you.

I’ve spoken about this numerous times, but it is an important skill to be able to listen to perspectives different from your own, seek to understand until you can articulate them, even if you don’t agree. There are often important nuances that you might be able to absorb that make your view more well-rounded. This has happened to me time and time again - even though many of my core beliefs and values have remained the same over the years.

“Seek to understand, then to be understood” is the principle - articulated and popularised by Stephen Covey in his book “the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.

I’ll attempt to summarise a few different views on “Australia day” and mix it up with my own thoughts.

In recent years, there have been increasing calls to “change the date” of Australia Day. Many (not all) but certainly a lot of indigenous people since the 1930s have termed January 26th “Invasion Day” and in response, many people are calling for our “National day” to be moved, to a day that we can “all celebrate”.

Personally, I’m very open to the idea! However, I fear that to do so without a compelling vision for our country and what it represents, could in the long run do more harm than good, and sow more division, instead of national unity - which should be our intent.

To a lot of people, “Australia Day” is seen as a day to celebrate Australia and see it as a “great country”. This might be expressed through BBQs and even flag flying! (I drove along the beach today and I saw many BBQs and numerous flags.) These are not all Anglo-Saxon people by the way, there are people of lots of ethnicities that live in Australia, that feel this way! They love Australia, it’s culture and the opportunities the country has given them and so “Australia day” is seen as a day to celebrate that. To all those people, I say: “Happy Australia Day”!

Is Australia a great country? All I’ll say is, if you were to throw 20 darts at a world map, and spend a few days in each of the countries you hit, I’m fairly certain you’d rather live in Australia than anywhere else! I’ll leave it there for now.

I’m also not interested in waving flags *at* people, or getting in everyone’s faces and saying “Happy Australia Day” to people that might not appreciate it. That’s not my style. Very few people in this country are actually like this, but there are some. Of course, we should value and celebrate the fact that we have freedom of expression. Just as people have a right to dissent, or protest!

There are “Invasion day” marches held across the city, and they should be free to hold them too!!!

However, I truely believe that the way forward for our country includes this step: listening to each other, in good faith. (As my wife says - listening in order to understand, not in order to be triggered by them.) And the more this happens, the better off our country will be! I really believe this.

It’s the role of leaders to say “this is where we are now - what do we do about it?” And lead people forward with a positive, bold vision. Be a leader.

In spite of all this, many of the divisions in our country can only be solved through spiritual means - and that is through Christ.

That’s why I believe January 26th is a great day to pray for Australia. And that’s what we’ll be doing at our church tonight.

Prayer/worship/time in the presence of God… I can’t think of anything better!

❤️❤️❤️❤️ to all🙏🙏🙏🙏